


Eleven Years Later

by joyinrespite



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Epilogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 16:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18502375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joyinrespite/pseuds/joyinrespite
Summary: I'm unhappy with the way one of the favorite childhood stories ends, so I wrote my own take on it. It's been a long time since I've read the series, so if I got anything wrong, just accept that it's part of the AU, I guess.Also, trans rights are human rights and fuck TERFs.





	Eleven Years Later

Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first of September was crisp and golden as an apple, and as the little family bobbed across the rumbling road toward the great sooty station, the fumes of car exhausts and the breath of pedestrians sparkled like cobwebs in the cold air. A few heads turned toward the owl hooting indignantly in a cage in the arms of a small child.

“Are you sure you don’t want to throw the cage on the trolley?” Harry asked.

“No.” Teddy clutched the cage a little closer. “Holly is _my_ owl and _I’m_ going to take care of her.”

Harry chuckled. “Whatever you say.”

Teddy held his chin up with confidence as he walked past the curious commuters toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Another child ran past, a lizard clinging to her arm.

“D’you think I’ll be in Gryffindor like you?”

“Well, we can’t know until you try that hat on, can we?” her father said.

Her other father gave her a noogie. “If it even fits.”

They caught the attention of Teddy and his family, and Harry’s face lit up. “No way!”

Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas embraced their friends with unrestrained grins. Seamus clapped Harry’s shoulder. “Surprised to see us here, eh? Figured we’d wait to tell you. You have no idea the strings we pulled to get the adoption to go through in time for Alana to be in the same class as Teddy.”

“Hexed half the agents in the system, I reckon,” Dean added darkly.

“I’m so glad it all worked out,” Ginny said. “Nice to finally meet you, Alana”

Harry nodded. “We couldn’t be happier to have someone to keep Teddy entertained in detention.”

“Don’t jinx it, Harry!” Ginny poked him in the ribs. “Teddy’s going to be Quidditch captain, isn’t he?”

“I’ve been practicing all summer!” he announced to the other family.

“Which means _no detentions_.” Ginny gave him a stern look, then winked. “So do your best not to get caught.”

After taking a moment to get caught up, having not seen each other since the last Quidditch World Cup, the conversation slowed. Both families regarded each other with gratitude that was hard to express in words, knowing what it cost to be where they were now.

“Where’s the rest of your entourage?" Dean finally asked. "Not used to seeing you without the other two.”

“Should be here any minute.” Harry checked his watch. “Bet George held them up. You go on ahead—I’ll wait out here.”

“Nah, of course we’ll hang back with y-”

Alana yanked on Dean’s robes, cutting him off. “ _I wanna see the train I wanna see the train oh daddy please let me see the train_.”

Dean shrugged, giving Harry a polite smile. “See you on the other side, old chap.”

As the three of them disappeared into the wall, Ginny smiled. “Good for them.”

“No kidding.”

“God, Harry, you’re going to be teaching everyone’s _kids_. That’s so weird.”

“You’re telling me. I can’t wait for another few years until I start receiving Howlers from the Malfoys for _daring_ to give their little Scorpius anything less than a perfect grade.”

“Yeah, that’ll be a riot. But I better not see you treating that boy any different than you’d teach any other student of yours just because he’s Malfoy’s son.”

“Have some faith in me, Ginny! So cynical.”

“You should know better than anyone!”

Harry grinned at his wife, loving to see her so defensive. He loved how unabashedly she called out for justice, never letting her standards slip for anyone. She kept people on the right path, no excuses—something Harry and, frankly, the entire wizarding community had needed after the war. It was something she and Hermione had bonded over a lot in the past eleven years, with Ginny serving so often as a public advocate for whatever causes Hermione was working on at the moment. She had been instrumental in garnering support for the House Elf Rights Reform Act, and it probably wouldn’t have passed without her boycotting Quidditch for it. That was something else Harry loved about Ginny: when she spoke, people listened.

“They’re late again,” Teddy complained, sitting atop his luggage.

“I bet my dunce of a brother insisted on Apparating them,” Ginny reasoned. “They’re probably halfway across London right now.”

“Oh, for sure,” Harry agreed, still scanning the crowd in hopes of catching them. But as he looked around, he caught sight of a face that made him do a double-take. It was attached to a short, thick body being dragged around by a little girl whose wispy blonde hair was pulled into pigtails. The sight was so bizarre that Harry could only stare, eyebrows furrowed, as he tried to make sense of it.

“Dudley…?”

“What?” Ginny followed Harry’s gaze. “Your wretched cousin?”

“Dudley?” Harry said again, louder, his feet carrying him towards the pair. “Dudley!”

The little girl nearly tripped as the man behind her froze in his tracks, the blood draining from his face. Harry kept approaching, nearly sprinting, until he stood before his cousin for the first time in twelve years.

“What…” He realized he didn’t know what to say. “What are you doing here?” It came out more aggressive than he intended.

Dudley’s mouth gaped open. “I…”

“Are you a wizard?”

Harry looked down at the inquisitive girl, her smile missing a tooth. “Yes…?”

“Harry,” Dudley said, “this is my daughter, Emily. She got a letter last month, from...from Hog’s Wart.”

“ _Hogwarts_ ,” Emily corrected.

“Hogwarts,” Dudley repeated.

Harry didn’t know what to think, let alone how to respond. He felt Ginny beside him, her hand protectively placed upon his arm.

“It wasn’t a total surprise—she’s been doing all sorts of crazy stuff for years.” Dudley chuckled. “One time, she got spooked by the neighbor’s dog, and next thing I know she’s on the roof! Didn’t you do the same thing once? At school? Do you remember that?”

His cautious smile wavered as Harry took a moment to process what he was saying. Ginny squeezed her husband’s arm.

“Er, yeah. Yeah, I remember.”

“We just got back from that, er, wizard shopping center-”

“Diagon Alley,” Emily reminded him.

“-yes, that, so we could get all of your robes and cauldrons and books and things. Honestly, I’m still a bit shell-shocked from it all. A frog jumped right in my hair this morning, and one of Emily’s textbook has a whole chapter on dragons, and I have no idea what the hell a galleon is, and I…I’m just trying to get used to it all.” He cast his eyes to the ground, his face going red. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I want to be here for her. I can’t imagine a kid going through all this without anyone to...to support them….”

Harry didn’t know what to say, so he simply pulled the man into a hug. Dudley made a small squeaking noise.

“I’ll look after her,” Harry promised.

When they broke apart, both had tears in the corners of their eyes.

“Thank you,” Dudley said.

Harry offered a hand to Emily. “I’m the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Professor Potter. But you can call me Harry.”

“Uncle Harry,” Dudley offered, to which Harry grinned with pride.

Emily shook his hand with unprecedented power. “Dark Arts?”

“Nothing to worry about. Not when _I’m_ around.”

Ginny elbowed him. “You’re so full of it.”

In the meantime, Dudley’s eyes had fallen upon Teddy. “Um, hello.”

Teddy waved.

“We’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” Harry said. “Ginny and I don’t live too far from Hogwarts, if you want to stay for Christmas.”

“That...that sounds good.” Dudley nodded. “That sounds great. I’ll keep in touch. Er...do I need to buy an owl, or…?”

Harry laughed. “I’ll show Emily how to send letters with the school’s owls.”

Dudley embraced his daughter, and Harry felt a strange sort of joy inside him. Bittersweet, perhaps, but as the man waved and walked away, Harry thought only about how glad he was that Emily wouldn’t be entering the wizarding world alone.

They walked back to the barrier as Ginny explained how it worked to Emily.

“Does it hurt?”

“You won’t feel a thing,” Ginny promised, taking Teddy’s hand and offering her other to Emily. The girl took it and grinned.

When the four of them crossed over, she winced, but the look was quickly replaced with slack-jawed wonder as she looked around platform 9 ¾. Thick clouds of steam obscured much of the platform as families hurried their children onto the Hogwarts Express, buzzing and fretting about. Harry recognized a few of the faces, but not many. It had been a long time, and so much had changed. It was a new world now.

“Harry! Ginny!”

He turned to see his two best friends rushing over, faces flushed.

“Oh, I’m so sorry we’re late, Harry.” Hermione took a moment to catch her breath after giving Harry a hug. “Ron accidentally apparated us five blocks down.”

“There aren’t many apparition-friendly places in central London, Hermione!”

“There’s one built onto King’s Cross specifically for this purpose and you _know_ that.”

Ron passed an exasperated look to Harry, who just smiled and shook his head. “For shame, Ron, forcing poor Teddy here to wait so long to see his favorite people in the world.”

He ruffled Teddy’s hair, which he had Metamorphosed that morning into a short, blue style.

“Boy today?” Ron asked, to which Teddy nodded in confirmation. Teddy usually tried to make it fairly easy to tell what he was feeling on any particular day. “Hey, d’you think Teddy can be the first person to ever be Head Boy _and_ Head Girl?”

“Ron…” Hermione groaned, but Teddy’s eyes widened.

“Could I really do that?”

“We’ll have to ask Headmaster McGonagall,” Harry wagered. “In fact...we should probably ask her about where you’ll be dorming, too.”

“Can’t I just stay with you?”

Harry felt his heart swell, but he tried to play it off. “Oh, after the first week, you’ll be having too much fun with your new friends to even think about me.”

“Never!” Teddy grasped Harry’s hand. “I love you.”

Beaming at his godchild, Harry marveled at what a joy Teddy had been in his life. In fact, he realized in that moment that he finally had what he’d wanted most for so long: to be surrounded by his family. He thought of the hardships that had followed the war, the pain, the grief. There were times back then when he thought he’d sacrificed everything. There were days when he thought he was being followed by dementors, and when he tried to cast a patronus, he couldn’t even give it shape. But the people who now stood around him had been there all the while, looking after him. There was Ginny’s embrace in the dark when he woke from nightmares, Hermione’s wisdom and her ferocity in making sure the wizarding world would never repeat what had happened, Ron’s humor and support and willingness to fight the battles Harry was often too weary to fight. And then there was Teddy.

Harry and Ginny had waited to get married. Both were swept up in grief after the war, and their relationship grew back slowly amidst the rubble of their lives. It wasn’t long after they were married that they were having dinner with Teddy and his grandmother and Andromeda confessed that she may have been getting too old to raise a rambunctious young Metamorphmagus on her own. Harry and Ginny took fewer than 24 hours to decide without a shred of doubt that they would take Teddy in. In the years following, Teddy became their own child, a bright young wizard who kept them busy and reminded them why they had fought the war in the first place. His world was bright and exciting and full of opportunity, and his home was full of love. Harry delighted in giving his child the magical upbringing he had been denied. The days grew so much brighter with Teddy’s laughter filling them.

It had made him all the more certain that he wanted to become a teacher at Hogwarts. Everyone had been goading him into it—”You were the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we ever had!” Ron had told him—but he feared returning to the school, taking such a public position. He had enjoyed his years of peace and solitude after the war. But once Teddy was anticipating his letter, Harry knew it was time for him to go back to Hogwarts. When he submitted his application, McGonagall ended her response, _It certainly took you long enough, Potter_.

“Can I have an autograph?”

A starry-eyed child stood before him, holding out a quill and book. Harry puffed up his chest before he realized that the child was talking to Ginny and that the book was titled _Quidditch in the 21st Century_.

“Back off, Potter; this one’s mine,” Ginny said, smugly signing the book.

Ron threw an arm around Harry’s shoulders. “Can’t imagine living in such a tall shadow as the captain of the Holyhead Harpies.” He solemnly shook his head. “I don’t know how you can live with being so _mundane_  compared to her.”

“Quite happily, thank you very much.”

Hermione had taken notice of Emily, curious about how she clinged to the Potter family’s trolley. “Hello, love. What’s your name?”

“Emily Dursley.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” She gave Harry a look. _Dursley_? she mouthed.

“Ginny can explain later.”

The train let out a long whistle, and children all around them began rushing to board.

“Okay, hurry up, you lot,” Ginny ordered. “The train won’t wait forever.”

Teddy embraced his mother. “You’ll write every day?”

“Of course. We live close enough to Hogwarts that I could write you _twice_ a day if you need me to. And Harry will be right there with you, and Neville, too.”

“I love you, mum.”

“I love you too, dear.”

When Ginny released him, she made an effort to conceal the tears in her eyes. Harry held her face in his hand and wiped the tears away with his thumb. “We’ll see you at your match next month, okay?”

“You better.”

He brought her close and kissed her, ignoring the chorus of _ewww_ from Teddy and Emily.

“Go, go,” Ginny insisted as she pulled away. “You’re running late!”

After saying goodbye to Ron and Hermione, Harry ushered Teddy onto the Hogwarts Express, following close behind.

“What are you doing?” Teddy asked.

“I’m taking the train with you.”

“Professors can’t do that!”

“Of course they can. I once rode on the train with my own Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The best one I ever had.”

Teddy knew what that meant, and his face lit up.

When they found their compartment, the train was already moving. They barely had time to wave goodbye to Ginny. Once she and the rest of King’s Cross disappeared into the mist, Harry sat back in his seat with a sigh. He took a long glance around the train for the first time in well over a decade. A small face appeared at the compartment’s entrance.

“Can I sit in here?” Alana asked.

“Absolutely,” Harry answered, scooting over to make room for her.

Teddy and Emily were already deep in conversation, with Teddy clearly eager to teach Emily everything he knew about the wizarding world.

“-and every frog comes with a card with a famous wizard’s picture on it,” he explained, “and you can collect them.”

“My dads buy me a chocolate frog every time we go out,” Alana added. “I have Merlin, Albus Dumbledore, Newt Scamander, Amelia Earhart….”

“The sweets trolley will come around soon,” Harry said. “We can start your collection, Emily. There’s one card I’m particularly fond of, so I hope we can find one before the end of the day.”

“He’s full of it,” Teddy whispered to the other two.

Harry laughed. “You sound like your mother.”

Green hills rolled past the window. Harry inhaled the clean air deeply and released the tension from his shoulders, feeling, for the first time in years, excited to be returning to Hogwarts. He looked at Teddy sitting across from him and swelled with joy to know that he and his friends would be able to have normal childhoods, to go to school and get into trouble without fearing for their lives. He thought about Ginny, about Ron and Hermione, and about Seamus and Dean, about Lupin and Sirius, about his own parents, about all of the people who had come into his life and some who had left. He thought about the flying Ford Anglia and the dementors and the Knight Bus and the thestrals. He thought about the Mirror of Erised, and he imagined that it would now look the same as any other mirror to him.

While Teddy and Emily were wrapped up in their own conversation, Alana turned to Harry, speaking softly. “Can I see your scar?”

Harry obliged, pushing his hair back to show the bolt of lightning on his forehead. He watched her eyes widen and felt a twinge of amusement, and perhaps a moment of deja-vu. When he let his hair back down, his hand instinctively brushed against the scar, feeling for some sort of spark. But it had not pained him in eleven years. All was well.


End file.
